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Was 270, on lots of meds for obesity related illnesses. Now I'm 158 and I only take Vitamins. AND I've finally stopped losing hair! Fortunately, the hair loss has been my worst surgery related problem. I took Biotin, I used shampoos for thinning hair, I watched my Protein closely, I even tried rogaine. I did everything I could to try to make my hair stop falling out. My hair became noticeably thin, but at around my ONE YEAR surgiversarry it seemed to stop coming out and start filling in a bit. Even with hair loss- no regrets on my surgery. Anyone else here experience a lot of hair loss for an extended period of time? I expected a couple months of hair loss, but was surprised by the 9 full months of it coming out in handfuls!

Thanks losingit! Yes, please get as much therapy and help as you can with un-learning the bad behaviors. Emotional eating can derail everything with your surgery. I think about it everyday and avoid it.

Nik- I know emotional eating is easy to fall back into. I think its just one of those things we'll have to fight the rest of our lives. I wish I had a better reply, but it's an honest one.

Now THATS a good week!

@BBrown05 Nov, 19, 2010 was my surgery date :-) @Regina I use myfitnesspal.com too. I'm not actually trying to lose more weight at the moment, but I find it helpful to for keeping me aware of what I'm eating and how it stacks up. I love the fact that you can SCAN barcodes with the iphone (and droid, too) to get the nutritional info into the app! Pretty awesome for a free app, IMO.

Dr. Andrew Dewitt, Princeton hospital in Birmingham, Alabama. He's a wonderful surgeon. I chose him for a few reasons: 1. I met other people he'd performed surgeries on. RNY and other stomach surgeries. 2. I'd spoken with people that he had done revisions on and they had great things to say about him. 3. Many friends and family members that work in medicine and local hospitals said they'd choose him for themselves or a loved one. 4. I just liked him and felt at ease with him. 5. I liked his staff.

Yeah, it IS a big deal, definitely. I was very scared too. Petrified. The closer I got to surgery day- the more scared I was. In my case, although I was scared, I kept going through the process of getting my surgery, kept reading up on the surgery, kept reading about post-op issues (good and bad) and generally tried to educate myself as much as possible. While I was doing all this, I was also keeping in mind that until I was on the table I could still back out. I went through with it because my quality of life and health as a morbidly obese person were quickly diminishing. I have a very strong family history of heart disease and at 38 I was diabetic (II), had high blood pressure, high cholesterol, sleep apnea, arthritis, zero energy and was clearly headed for a heart attack in another year or two. My father had his first of 6 open heart surgeries at age 40 and died at age 59. The gastric bypass seemed much better to me than my Dad's 6 heart bypass surgeries and 19 years of dying. Ultimately, no one (but your doctors) can really give you good advice on whether or not to do it. Personally, i'm glad that I did it and I've never regretted it. I'd do it again in an instant. Oh and BTW... My insurance didn't cover mine. I paid out of pocket and I am NOT a wealthy person. I really felt that, in my case, it was, "if you want to live and be 'ok'- this may be your only shot. If you don't do this, you'll keep the weight, the illnesses will get worse and you can die like dad did." I could still die like my dad did. Genetics don't always play fair, but my quality of life is soooo much better than it was 15 months ago. It's like night and day. Best of luck to you. Do what's best for you- whatever that may be. Be strong!

Ah! Yeah, stress eating. I'm trying really hard to continue to always be aware of it and avoid doing it. At the same time, I know that in my pre surgery life it DID happen, so it'll always be something I'll have to look out for, too.

Yikes! That's something that I'm really afraid of experiencing. Looking back, what do you think happened in the second year in your case? Also, how do you plan to get back on track? I'm asking because I *know* I could easily be writing the same post next year. I believe you can definitely get the 40 off again. I'm rooting for you! :-)

Congrats to you guys! What's been the most surprising thing about your post-op life, so far?